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National Health Committee (NHC)
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Functions
The National Health Committee had the following functions:
- To develop and provide to the Council, and subsequently to governments and the community, evidence-based guidelines or other forms of advice on a range of matters, especially in population health, including, but not limited to:
- health promotion and illness prevention;
- diagnosis and treatment of disease;
- health systems and service delivery, including methods of diagnosis and treatment;
- the quality and safety of care; and
- health outcomes and processes.
- To consult with the community, population health and health care professionals, and all levels of government in identifying emerging issues and in carrying out (1) above.
- To develop and maintain standards for the development of health advice, including population health and clinical practice guidelines.
- To consider and, where appropriate, recommend for approval to the NHMRC clinical practice guidelines developed in accordance with NHMRC standards.
- To identify gaps in knowledge.
Composition
The National Health Committee comprised members from a broad range of backgrounds with expertise which included:
- consumer advocacy
- indigenous health (two members);
- epidemiology (including biostatistics);
- population health (including environmental health and the social determinants of health);
- health policy;
- health systems;
- health economics;
- evidence-based population health and clinical practice;
- health informatics and electronic health information;
- health promotion;
- the quality of health care; and
- communication, dissemination and implementation.
Membership
Professor Colin MASTERS (Chairman) has held many senior scientific research positions, predominantly in the area of Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative disease. His current appointments include Executive Director and Chief of Neuropathology at the Mental Health Research Institute, Laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne and Co-Director of the Australian National Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Case Registry. He is also a Consultant at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and Chief Scientific Advisor to Neurosciences Australia. His achievements have been recognised by the receipt of many international awards, and he is a prolific author covering multidisciplinary aspects of the neurodegenerative disorders.
Ms Rebecca JAMES (Deputy Chair) is the Chief Executive Officer of Research Australia Limited (Victorian Office). She has extensive experience working within government as an advisor on Medicare and public health, and has additional experience in health policy, indigenous health, medical workforce and medical research. She has been a member of various boards and advisory committees on health services and health policy. Her academic background includes economics and public policy.
Dr Kathryn ANTIOCH is a health economist with national and international qualifications and experience in reviewing health services; assessing, analysing and improving funding models; adjusting risks in financing health services and translating economic and clinical evidence into clinical practice. She is Principal Management Consultant, Health Economics and Funding Reforms; Australian Board Member, Deputy Chair and International Co-ordinator of the Guidelines and Economists Network International (GENI); Member of the Standing Scientific Committee, International Health Economists Association (IHEA); and Editorial Board member and Associate Editor, Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation Journal. She was a member of the National Health and Medical Research Council’s Health Advisory Committee in the 2003-06 triennium and has worked in senior management of Victorian teaching hospitals and for Federal and State Governments. She has international experience working on a Canadian Royal Commission on Health Care and Costs, and has consulted for both the public and private sector, including the World Bank.
Professor Katrine BAGHURST currently works as a consultant for government and the nutrition industry after an extensive career with the CSIRO. She was the senior principal research scientist and program manager of the Social Nutrition and Epidemiology Program, the Consumer Research Program and the Consumer Science Program. She has represented her interests and experience in the field of nutrition as a member of numerous health committees over the last 25 years, one of which was the Health Advisory Committee of the NHMRC in its most recent triennium. She is on the Board of Food Standards Australia New Zealand and currently holds an Adjunct Professorship in the Department of Medicine at the University of Adelaide.
Dr John CARNIE is the Chief Health Officer for Human Services Victoria. Prior to this he held the position of Director Disease Control & Research of the same department. He has expertise and experience in a range of public health issues including emerging community risks, communicable diseases, environmental health, biotechnology and ethics. He has been a member of numerous public health, scientific and research advisory committees and is a Fellow of the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine.
Professor Jon CURRIE is a neurologist and Director of Addiction Medicine, Health Service Demand and Mental Health, and Aged Care and Allied Health at St Vincent's Health in Melbourne. He has a longstanding interest in the neurobiology of addiction, the acute and chronic effects of alcohol and other drugs on brain function, and translation of basic neuroscience and neurobiological research into effective clinical treatments for addiction.
Professor Currie is the chair of the Victorian Drug and Alcohol Prevention Council and is involved with numerous councils, advisory committees and steering committees relating to the treatment and management of drug and alcohol issues.
Associate Professor Anne JOHNSON is currently a participant in the World of Difference program funded by the Vodafone Australia Foundation. The World of Difference program funds Anne to work for KidSafe (SA) Inc for 12 months and undertake the development of a strategy for addressing child injury prevention in children 0-4 years in rural and remote areas of South Australia. Anne has academic status as Associate Professor with the Department of Public Health, Flinders University, where she is supervising several research students. She has research and teaching interests in health promotion, consumer participation in health services and health systems, organisational change to reorient health services, and intersectoral collaboration. She is a member of numerous health promotion, consumer advocacy and professional associations.
Dr Mark WENITONG is a general practitioner and administrator with the Wuchopperen Aboriginal Medical Service in Cairns, as well as working with various Indigenous men’s groups and the David Wirrpunda Foundation for Aboriginal children. He is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Molecular Sciences at James Cook University and the president of the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association. He maintains a strong involvement in policy making and is a member of several national health committees, including the National Health and Medical Research Council’s Health Advisory Committee in its 2003-06 triennium.
Professor Harvey WHITEFORD is the Kratzmann Professor of Psychiatry and Population Health at the University of Queensland, and the Director of Policy and Economics Group at the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research. He is a mental health advisor to the Commonwealth Government, and has worked with the World Bank, WHO and national governments in the development and implementation of mental health programs. His research interests are in how best to plan, fund and deliver efficient and effective mental health services.
Dr Helen ZORBAS is currently the director of the National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre and a staff specialist at the Rachel Foster Breast Clinic, RPAH. She has frequently presented at national and international conferences in the areas of service delivery, cancer screening, and creating and improving partnerships in the management of breast cancer - particularly for those living in rural and remote areas. She has been a member of a variety of working parties and advisory committees, and was on the National Health and Medical Research Council’s Health Advisory Committee in the 2003-2006 triennium.
Rev Dr Gerald GLEESON is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Catholic Institute of Sydney, and a member of the Australian Health Ethics Committee. His academic interests include moral philosophy, philosophical anthropology and philosophical theology, in particular, the philosophy of the human person. Recent publications include papers on life-sustaining treatments and vegetative states, assisted reproductive technology and moral conscience. He is also a Parish Priest at Summer Hill in Sydney.
Dr Chris FRENCH is the Epilepsy Fellow and a neurologist at the Department of Neurology, Royal Melbourne Hospital. He also has experience in teaching and research including clinical applications and drug trials relating to neurology, specifically epilepsy.
Working Committees
Section 39 of the NHMRC Act 1992 allows the Chief Executive Officer to establish and appoint such working committees as are required to fulfil the functions of the Council.